Wish you all a happy Gokulashtami !!! Krishna Jeyanthi will not end without preparing seedais. While I was talking to my MIL ,she gave me so many tips for seedai. So I prepared myself with her recipe and tips. When I informed my mom ,that I am going to prepare seedai, she said "What?" no .Its too dangerous to prepare seedai .I asked her why ? She said, that there are much chances for it to burst. We had a bad accident at my granny's place, where seedai started bursting all over the kitchen ,splashing hot oil.
She also cautiously told the idea of pricking the seedais with needle or toothpick. This way, a vent is created for the air to escape while frying. One more reason it bursts, while frying is ,the presence of moisture. So when we take all the moisture out, it will not burst. So all the ingredients like coconut should be dry . Also the seedais should be completely dried on a paper atleast for an hour and then fried. This is also very essential. So these three steps ensures us safety. If you follow these 3 golden rules,I bet you will get seedais very well.
Ingredients:
1.Rice flour - 1 cup
2.Urad flour - 2 tbsp. .
3.Butter - 1 tbsp.
4.Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
5.Pepper pwdr - 1/4 tsp
6.Coconut pieces - 4 pieces or 2 tbsp. (shredded coconut)
7.Salt - to taste
8.Oil for frying
9.Water - as needed
Method:
* We can either make rice flour at home or use store bought rice flour. If you are going to use home made rice flour, then wash rice and soak it for half an hour .Then dry the rice under shade .when the rice is 80% dry, grind it in a blender in batches. Then sieve the flour. Now in a heavy bottom pan, dry roast the rice flour, till it gives out nice aroma. Similarly, for the urad flour, roast urad dal in a pan. When it turns golden brown, cool it completely. Grind the urad dal finely. Sieve the flour well ,without lumps. Now mix them together. Here I have the mixture of rice and urad flours.
* We can either scrape the coconut using a scraper. Since I didn't have coconut scraper, peeled the coconut pieces and pulsed in a blender. Don't add water to the blender while pulsing, so we will be getting finely shredded coconut. Make sure the shredded coconut doesn't have any lumps.
* Take a pan,add the shredded coconut and dry roast it,till all the moisture is taken away. This step is essential ,as the seedai should not have any moisture.
* Turn off the stove,when the coconut turns golden brown. We can feel the aroma,when it turns golden bown colour. Make sure not to turn the shredded coconut into black colour.
* Take a mixing bowl,add rice flour,urad flour,salt,sesame seeds,fried coconut,butter and pepper powder .
* Using our hands,blend butter and all other spices with the flour.Slowly ,crumble the flour. This way,we can check,whether if there are any lumps in the mixture.
* Now add water little by little and form a soft ,pliable dough. My friends say that the dough should be in a consisitancy, that when we form it into a ball ,it should hold its shape. When we press it ,it should be crumble again. Make sure they are not too hard.
* Now divide the dough into 4 parts . Make small balls out of it as shown. Don't press hard ,while making the balls. Because, this will build a pressure inside the seedai and it will blast ,while frying. So make loosely packed balls.Make small seedais ,if not it will not cook properly. Male tiny balls ,this will make sure the seedais cook fast .
* Take a clean needle or tooth pick and prick holes in the seedai. This will make a vent for the air to escape while frying.This is very essential step ,to avoid any accidents in the kitchen.
* To do this easily , just roll the seedais in batches and prick them ,as I did.This saves us some time and ensures that all the seedai are pricked. Repeat this process for all the seedais.
* Now take the rolled seedais and dry them on a clean news paper or wash cloth. Let all the seedais dry for atleast an hour. This will take away the moisture from the seedais. So it will not burst ,while frying. So when you take the seedais in hand after an hour, it will make sound, when they touch each other. It will not be a loud noise though :) This will make sure ,that they lost all the moisture.
* After an hour, pour oil in a pan and bring it to medium hot. Now test , the temperature, and drop one ball and see whether it bursts . If it bursts ,then there is moisture in the seedai or it is not pricked by the needle. So allow it to dry for more time. Once the seedais are dried well, slowly fry them in medium hot oil in batches.
* Slowly turn the seedais ,in circular motion.This enhances the seedai to get cooked evenly on all sides. Don't tempt to take the seedais soon, then it will be just cooked from outside and not inside.When the seedais turn golden brown on all sides,strain them on kitchen towel. Don't cook the seedais in low heat or high heat.It shoul be cooked under medium heat.
* Cool the seedais completely and store them in air tight containers. It stays fresh for atleast a week. We can also add a tbsp. of roasted gram (pottukadalai) flour for a different taste. Instead of adding shredded coconut ,we can also use coconut milk to the flour and knead it. Adding pepper powder is purely optional. We can skip that,if we don't like it.
Updated notes:
Second time ,I used less water to the given ratio of flour and prepared a dough ,which when holded between our fingures, it retains its shape and when crumbled down, it crumbles. This is the perfect texture of the seedai. At first , it may look like ,we would not be able to make balls out of it.But ,when we grease our hands with some oil and shape the balls,it holds its shape. Don't press too much. After drying for half an hour, it turned out too good. Use butter at room temperature. Make small balls for it to cook evenly.
